2015 TC Longevity

[MikeW]

Greetings Folks. Just recently traded in my '95 E 250 cargo van for a new Transit Connect. I wonder if I can get 20 years on my new one. ?

[MikeW]

It's a matter of body rust and parts availability. My old van only had some around the drip edge and most parts were readily available. Oh yeah... and change the oil religiously.

[Osco]

I average 72,000 miles a year and carry an average of 650 pounds of equipment.

Just purchased the one below with 20,000 miles on the clock

2015 TC XLT LWB wagon 2.5L engine..

I will run full synthetic Mobil 1 with 10,000 mile oil change Intervals. 75-80% will be Interstate crawling at 70-75 mph..

Got 528,000 out of 2006 Tacoma, Sold it running smooth..gutless but reliable.

Got 394,000 with a 1996 Jeep Cherokee with the venerable designed in 1957 AMC 4.0 L converted to EFI...Rear main let go due to crank bearing slop..I wore it out..never a breakdown and took the tranny that far also....

I will update as I go..I plan to be the high mileage sensi...

The 10k oil change interval...I know how and why it's completely safe to go that far ...

[G B L]

Cool you will be the Test Case for the Transit Connect. Get in the habit of checking The Transmission Fluid Every 4000-5000 miles. with no dipstick and no electronic tell tale it is an easy thing to let slide. Carry on

[Osco]

Jan 6th - March 15th about 15k miles..

Am at 35k...all Is well.

[G B L]

Here is what the 2014 Owners manual (page 188) says about oil changes . The interval depends on the load and service.

When to expect the OIL CHANGE REQUIRED message
Vehicle use and example
Interval
Normal
7500-10000 miles
(12000-16000 km)
Normal commuting with highway driving
No, or moderate, load or towing
Flat to moderately hilly roads
No extended idling
Severe
5000-7499 miles
(8000-11999 km)
Moderate to heavy load or towing
Mountainous or off-road conditions
Extended idling
Extended hot or cold operation
Extreme
3000-4999 miles
(5000-7999 km)
Maximum load or towing
Extreme hot or cold operation
Maintenance Intervals
At every oil change interval as indicated by the information display
*
Change engine oil and filter.
**
Rotate the tires.
Perform a multi-point inspection (recommended).
Inspect the automatic transmission fluid level. Consult your dealer for requirements.
Inspect the brake pads, shoes, rotors, drums, brake linings, hoses and parking brake.
Inspect the engine cooling system strength and hoses.
Inspect the exhaust system and heat shields.
Inspect the rear axle and U-joints. Lubricate any areas with grease fittings (A

Edited March 16, 2016 by G B L

[G B L]

The engine oil life worries me less than the possible leak in the Transmission, I would make a habit of checking the gear box every 2500-4000 miles. You may get included maintenance, but being with out the Van for 2 months while the dealer does the Transmission is a big price to pay for not checking .

[Osco]

38,500 miles

Ok something to report,, This will need updates as I go......

Rock truck cracked my windshield Thursday, The following Monday Safe lite shows up with the wrong windshield.. I needed the one with the mounted moisture sensor. The Insurace company farms this out to a middle man/woman who sez all she needs is my VIN number and she has that from the Insurance Info, ball gets dropped and I waste a half day waiting for the wrong windshield,,,Pfft Time to man up and grab a beer, and go watch TV..

That Thursday Another rock truck breaks the windshield on the OTHER side..

Chock one up for Murphy's Law right ?

No, wrong,, Murphy lost that one because Safe lite showed with the wrong one remember ?

Ok Saturday a Kid shows up, changes the windshield out and leaves......

The In dash outside air temp goes whacky wowow on me, Both on the center LCD and the Mid dash LCD,,The song goes like this :

I start my Droid,,thats my Transits name btw,,and It is 37 below zero out side per the thermometer,,funny I was in shorts and its really about 75 degrees,,LoL the temdprature guage swings wildly from about 37 below up to about 45 above zero farenheit,,and back and forth it goes for about five to ten minutes then settles to a correct readout..

The day gets hotter,, up to the mid 80's now and I turn on the air conditioner,,I get HOT air on all settings, max ac, everything:( Murphy Is after me again..

and all the while the outside air temp guage is on LSD just freaking out,,,

It settles down to the correct readout and the AC returns to freezing cold and all Is well,,,

Me and My Droid repeat this 3 out of 4 start ups..

Seem's to be less of a problem If I leave the AC Including the rear AC fan on the lower settings,,thats still plenty to freeze me....

I'll get it fixed,,,prolly the computer needs to be updated to the new moisture sensor,,,dang sensors,,really ?

Average mpg's is still 26 overall with me mixing city and Interstate driving,, about 70% Interstate at 75 mph with an average cargo load of 600 pounds.

Edited March 25, 2016 by Osco

[mrtn]

Heh. Love it when these things happen to someone else. Because, one day it's gonna be me writing this.

[G B L]

A good computer Scan should be able to check the Temp sensor.

Pretty soon the cars will do a background check to see if you should be allowed to go to the corner store.

Good Report keep us up dated on the Temp issue.

[mrtn]

A Bluetooth OBD2 scanner (or wifi, if you're in Apple party) plus accompanying smartphone application will read everything you need.

Just a few bucks in total.

Edited March 26, 2016 by mrtn

[Osco]

Answer to 38,500 mile post..

Out side air temp sensor replaced at dealer.

Part.about 20 bucks..Labor to remove front valance and install 200 bucks,,,done

Now at 47k miles..

[Osco]

Answer to 38,500 mile post..

Out side air temp sensor replaced at dealer.

Part.about 20 bucks..Labor to remove front valance and install 200 bucks,,,done

Now at 47k miles..

[G B L]

Nice . If you have not done the Trans fluid you should consider it .

[Osco]

Nice . If you have not done the Trans fluid you should consider it .

I asked and was told by Ford that the on board computer would tell me when It needs changing or needs checking.

I was also told that the computer would decide when my oil needed changing.

I drive mostly Interstate and It Indicated on the dash I needed to change the oil at 11,000 miles. I did and was told not to bother resetting the interval system.

Was also told If I started driving all city miles It may tell me to change it at 5k or 7k miles, I was reminded by Ford that my 11k mile Interval was In the cool weather of spring.

Was Also told the system can tell If I am running full synthetic or a blend.

I told them my old way was to run the Mobil 1 extended 15,000 mile range oil and to change it at 10k Intervals.

Ford said the system may have had Indicated a change was needed at 11k miles because of harsh conditions,, I looked back at my reciept's and It turns out I got the Mobile 1 10k full synthetic, I had made a note that walmart was out of the extended range oil at that time :P

The reason for this per the owners manual Is to prevent people from needlessly changing oil too soon as Is often the case. This Is very bad for the Earth,,,,,,

We all should know that the old school 3,000 mile Interval is environmentally a waste and no one should be running roach oil (Fossil) In a modern engine right ?

My 2006 Toyota Tacoma 2.7Ltr auto got two Transmission oil changes In 528,000 miles,, the first was at 40,000 miles only because I added a 13,000 BTU transmission oil cooler on the weekend and had to drive all day on a sunday. The added volume of the Inter cooler and additional lines needed almost 3/4ths of a quart and I had to by Napa fluid so this caused me to need a 12 quart flush. (To Get Toyota fluid back to acceptable levels)

Toyota Transmission's of that era would not shift properly on any other fluid.

The second change was at 300,000 miles and the old fluid came out looking, feeling and smelling exactly like the new fluid :P

That Transmission never had a single problem....

Ok I'm done~

Edited May 4, 2016 by Osco

[G B L]

The oil service message is for the engine oil not the trans. I changed the Transmission fluid at 26000 and it needed it.

[Osco]

55,000 now and still no problems.

[G B L]

Cool

[jrm223]

Okay, so I searched "thermometer" to see if anybody else had the same problem mine has randomly had for several weeks now - it happens sporadically and I don't use my A/C. No real damage or replaced parts, either.

Anyway, I was driving home from work yesterday, look down at the thermometer (XL, so I only have one, unlike Osco) and - much to my surprise - I find out it's apparently -35*F!! Wow, and here I thought that it was 90*F, spread of 125* difference... Even got pictures of it going bat-shit-crazy so I can bring proof to Ford. The weirder part (really? Weirder??) is that stopping or slowing down would make the temperature drop, then after I speed up and stay a steady speed for awhile, it would climb again, then repeat the cycle when I have to stop or slow down. It happened to a smaller extent this morning, but only up/down a couple times over my 50 mile drive. Oh yea, as shown in the pics, I'm just under 30K miles now. Here's just a few of the pics that I got, the rest are in my album... Note the odometer miles versus temperature change, too.

38,500 miles

Ok something to report,, This will need updates as I go......

Rock truck cracked my windshield Thursday, The following Monday Safe lite shows up with the wrong windshield.. I needed the one with the mounted moisture sensor. The Insurace company farms this out to a middle man/woman who sez all she needs is my VIN number and she has that from the Insurance Info, ball gets dropped and I waste a half day waiting for the wrong windshield,,,Pfft Time to man up and grab a beer, and go watch TV..

That Thursday Another rock truck breaks the windshield on the OTHER side..

Chock one up for Murphy's Law right ?

No, wrong,, Murphy lost that one because Safe lite showed with the wrong one remember ?

Ok Saturday a Kid shows up, changes the windshield out and leaves......

The In dash outside air temp goes whacky wowow on me, Both on the center LCD and the Mid dash LCD,,The song goes like this :

I start my Droid,,thats my Transits name btw,,and It is 37 below zero out side per the thermometer,,funny I was in shorts and its really about 75 degrees,,LoL the temdprature guage swings wildly from about 37 below up to about 45 above zero farenheit,,and back and forth it goes for about five to ten minutes then settles to a correct readout..

The day gets hotter,, up to the mid 80's now and I turn on the air conditioner,,I get HOT air on all settings, max ac, everything:( Murphy Is after me again..

and all the while the outside air temp guage is on LSD just freaking out,,,

It settles down to the correct readout and the AC returns to freezing cold and all Is well,,,

Me and My Droid repeat this 3 out of 4 start ups..

Seem's to be less of a problem If I leave the AC Including the rear AC fan on the lower settings,,thats still plenty to freeze me....

I'll get it fixed,,,prolly the computer needs to be updated to the new moisture sensor,,,dang sensors,,really ?

Average mpg's is still 26 overall with me mixing city and Interstate driving,, about 70% Interstate at 75 mph with an average cargo load of 600 pounds.

[Osco]

59500 miles and no more problems. I should be driving less miles per year, thinking 50 -55k a year not 70 plus.

Doing Oil changes at 10 k Intervals,,40k, 50k, 60k eyc,, because It's simple.

Using Mobil 1 extended life, It say's 15k interval ok, very good additive package but still 10k intervals for me, In the Florida heat and humidity.

Napa Gold filter and no other.

Added a K&N Air filter about 5k miles ago and It gave me a noticeably smoother Idle and a very small felt Increase Is 'Snap' when I take off with a lead foot,

The old filter was not clogged but due for a change out.

MPG's did not change nor did felt power, I say to those who think they got more power and or mpg's,,It's because you drove differently or conditions changed..

The Air meter regulates things as does Injector flow.

These small engines do not need the added air flow as would a Hemi or some other performance engine,

I used one in my 383 engine I put In a Cuda' It made a real difference in that set up.

The true advantage of the K&N Is service life, cost savings (significant), and the fact that when this filter gets very dirty and that takes a very long time (50-60,000 miles),

It is still passing more air with less vacume than a regular OEM filter that's clean.

The only disadvantage is cleaning and oiling the filter as the procedure must be followed exactly to the letter and IF you over oil the filter or not dry in properly you will then need a throttle body service,,about $100 I think.

So Is the K&N worth it ?

IMHO Absolutely :P

Edited June 29, 2016 by Osco

[gargman]

LOL! Don't think everyone should be worried about transmission issues. And messing with the level isn't needed. The 2014 my company bought has 190,000 miles and going strong. No tranny or leak issues at all. Had dealer change trans fluid@ 120,000 miles and he said it could have went another 100,000!!! My 2015 I bought for myself has 96,000 and no issues so I'm not gonna create any ! These are great vans and as hard as we drive them if they don't fail, they wont fail you either. I pull a 800 pound trailer 5 days a week so if the tranny was going to fail, it would have by now.

[Osco]

8 months I've had this 'Driod', Got this 2015 LWB/XLT 2.5L wagon In January this year, Had 20,000 miles on It,,,,,65,500 miles now. It's broken In now, the Transmission shifts smoother than at 20k miles or I've gotten better at driving it IDK.

Driving only about 1,000 miles a week now, no complaints of any kind.

I will say, for me, for my needs I find this 'Wagon' to be a far better fit than my 2013 F-150 XL. and It fits in the garage with my Mustang :P

[Osco]

115,000, first transmission flush, old fluid came out looking just like the new fluid.. Shifted exactly the same after.

Flushed the cooling system,

Still running original factory brake pads front and rear... Yep you read that right.

 

[Fifty150]

54 minutes ago, Osco said:

115,000, first transmission flush, old fluid came out looking just like the new fluid

 

 

Interesting.  Everyone else has black fluid coming out.  Your fluid stayed bright red.  

[jrm223]

12 hours ago, Osco said:

115,000, first transmission flush, old fluid came out looking just like the new fluid.. Shifted exactly the same after.

Flushed the cooling system,

Still running original factory brake pads front and rear... Yep you read that right.

 

 

Ford flushed my 2015 trans at 102K miles, so I don't know what color came out. I'm still running the factory front brakes at 110K & they look new, but I replaced the rear pads a few weeks ago at 108.5K miles. Ford told me back at 102K miles that the rears had 2mm left, but wanted like $330 to replace the rears. I bought the parts on Rockauto and finally did them a few weekends ago, but I found that three of the pads still had 60% life and one had about 30% life - still far more left than the 2mm @ 102K miles that Ford said. Since the one pad was worn weird (I think it was passenger outer?) I went ahead and replaced all four pads in back, but left the factory rotors since they didn't even have a worn lip on them. Now I have a spare set of rear rotors for like 200K or 300K miles or whatever? If I don't lose them before that, haha